PROVIDENCE – Federal Hill Pizza, one of the state’s most-highly regarded pizzerias, has opened in a second location in Providence, becoming the first business to take advantage of a neighborhood-based tax incentive program.
Owners Christine and William Manzo purchased the former Castle Theater, at 1039 Chalkstone Ave., in the Elmhurst neighborhood. They renovated the empty venue, originally a vaudeville theater, and opened in late January.
The facility, which seats more than 200 people, covers 11,000 square feet.
The first Federal Hill Pizza location opened in Warren in 2009. It seats about 75 people.
The neighborhood-based tax stabilization agreement, called the Neighborhood Revitalization Act, is available to developers and owners who invest in new construction or rehabilitation of commercial, mixed-use or multifamily residential properties, in a range of $250,000 to $3 million. The improvements have to be made in economically distressed neighborhoods of the city.
The ordinance was intended as a companion to a much larger standard TSA for development in the Interstate 195 Redevelopment District. The City Council approved both in January 2016.
For William Manzo, who grew up in the Chalkstone Avenue neighborhood, the location made financial and emotional sense. As a child, he saw the movies “Rocky” and “Jaws” in the neighborhood theater.
Now, he regularly sees childhood friends at the establishment, which specializes in Neapolitan-style pizza.
The couple lives in the neighborhood, and welcomed an opportunity to invest in their area, said Christine. “It’s our neighborhood,” she said. “We have a vested interest in the city that we live in.”
The purchase and investment of private resources, which he estimated at a combined $500,000, made financial sense with the assistance of the TSA, which spreads out the full burden of property taxes over six years.
Without the assistance, “I wouldn’t have done it in the state,” said William Manzo, who also investigated locations in northern Rhode Island suburbs.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer.
